Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Occasionally I get a random idea... like, "Hey! It would be fun to build with heart shaped marshmallows and toothpicks" and then I start thinking about what else we could do with marshmallows and the next thing you know we're having a Marshmallow Mania party after school.

Welcome to my brain, girls.

So despite this idea stemming from using heart shaped marshmallows (hello, Valentines Day), they were nowhere to be found so I settled for pink and white mallows of various sizes instead.

First up on our list of activities was using various types of tongs to pick up single marshmallows and fill our cups.

We rotated through the tongs and talked about which ones were easiest to pick up which sized marshmallows. Then I timed them on who could fill their cup the fastest using only the little ones and only picking up one marshmallow at a time.

When I think about marshmallows I think about hot cocoa, so I printed off these little hot cocoa cups and then added hearts to the sleeves and Griffin placed a marshmallow on each of the hearts...

Mason had counting and some basic addition problems on his and he placed the corresponding numbers of marshmallows on the cup...

And Luke had harder math problems.

And then because I was having too much fun I made a few for the kids to color as well :)

If you want to print your own copies of the cups, you can grab the PDF HERE.

We headed out to the backyard where we did our own version of the egg and spoon races, but with marshmallows instead :) Griffin wasn't into racing, but she jumped on the trampoline while trying to keep her marshmallow on her spoon.

I absolutely adore how intentional you are about taking the time to plan these crafts and games for your children and incorporate ordinary things to create multiple simple, fun activities that they can all enjoy at their own level. That mansion that Luke created - holy marshmallows that was just awesome! You always give me lots of great ideas for keeping things fun and simple with my own. Julie

Love this idea! G looks so precious jumping on the trampoline with her mallows! Two quick questions.... where is the kid table from? I love the chairs! And are you using iMovie to clip together those little home videos? They are adorable and such a great memory for your littles!! Thanks for the printable, I might use them with my first graders!Mandi

This is so cute! But even more amazing than that is that you had time to do all of that after you got home from work. When we get home from work we're lucky to get anything accomplished. Maybe a fun Saturday project for us! Thanks for sharing your amazing thought process :) I just love your blog!

Oh, girl. There are definitely days where I just want to put on a movie and plop them down in front of it, but I try to be really purposeful about the time that we spend together since it is limited. THANK YOU so much for reading!!!

Great post! I've noticed recently that Luke is working on multiplication, do you have any tips on getting kiddos to learn/memorize those? We are working on that and it seems to be a little tough for my little ones. Thanks!!

Luke is super intuitive when it comes to math - so he's actually been reasoning through his multiplication facts and figuring them out on his own. I will say that as a middle school teacher I can't stress enough the importance of knowing those facts frontwards and backwards :) We typically talk about multiplication in terms of groups (i.e. 4 groups of 5 and why that's the same as 5 groups of 4... let them get their hands on beans, legos, stickers, etc. and maybe see if that helps. And when all else fails I would turn to flashcards :) hahaha

I will be saving this idea for when the grandchildren come. Luke's creation is awesome. I also love how you incorporate activities so that all three children can participate. If you ever give up your day job, you would be a wonderful homeschooler!;)

When my boys were little, we flew to visit my parents once a month. A ziploc of mini marshmallows and toothpicks was a quick, easy and quiet way to keep them busy on the flight. They would sit and build on their tray tables and then we could toss it when we landed.

I teach prek and we use toothpicks and marshmallows to build letters and numbers too.

I'm a little late (catching up on all my blogs), but I just love this! I love seeing all the crafts you do with your kids. My daughter & I do a lot of crafts/learning activities. I get kinda anxious thinking about her starting school because I think I won't be able to anymore (we do them in the morning) & this gives me hope!